Tennessee vs. Germany at VW

A labor fight at a Chattanooga auto plant has roots 4,000 miles away—and that's fine with the UAW.

By

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

Updated Sept. 18, 2013 10:55 a.m. ET

Don't mistake a fight over a Volkswagen factory in Tennessee with the great episodes of labor history. The Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936 it's not.

The only sit-down relevant to VW's Chattanooga plant took place in Germany on Aug. 30, in a secret meeting between the United Auto Workers union and German labor representatives on Volkswagen's supervisory board. Chattanooga is VW's only major plant without a German-style works council, in...